According to brokers, this is not unusual since the market is being driven by sentiments and not fundamentals. Additionally, despite talks of considerable institutional buying, the cumulative FII investment figures for the current month remained in the negative territory although they were net buyers of equity worth Rs 49 crore on July 25 and mutual funds' investment figures remained marginally positive for the last couple of days.Market players are expecting weakish trends for Thursday. And the downside could be close to the 4000-mark for the Sensex.

Market players are expecting some fresh buying to resume around the 4050 mark.Although in the short run the market might make a turnaround, there are a number of concerns which can have adverse effect on the movement of stocks in the medium term, feel brokers. According to Chirag Sanghvi at Asit C Mehta Investment Intermediaries, three major factors are looming large over the markets. For one, FII selling still continues; secondly, forex reserves have shown negative trends over the last few weeks and the US Fed is scheduled to meet during the first week of August to decide on key interest rates. ``These factors have the potential to affect the market,'' Sanghvi said.

Additionally, the fiscal situation can also have a negative effect on the market.On Wednesday, on the face of a general sell-off, a number of FMCG stocks rallied smartly. The Colgate counter was very strong, while the scrips like HLL and Nestle were holding their ground. Analysts feel that the FMCG sector is going to show good results for the quarter ended June 2000. ``HLL results are due this Friday, and in case the company puts up a good performance, we can see another good rally in the FMCG counters,'' said an analyst.And among the infotech counters, BFL Software and Software Technology Group showed good resistance. Also, according to dealers, HFCL is in a consolidation mode. uValues showed a sharp decline on Wednesday as buying interest was absent and supply increased drastically especially in the second half of the day.

The market was flat in the beginning, but the downtrend gathered momentum during the second half. The fall was extermely sharp in software stocks, and counters like SSI, Pentamedia, Satyam Comp, Aptech, Silverline, Wipro, Rolta, showed a fall of more than 8 per cent. As for the non-software segment, the sentiment was equally bearish, and key stocks like Reliance, L&T, ACC, ITC, SBI, and Telco showed a sharp fall.Meanwhile, the BSE sensitive index opened at 4361.88 points, and the high for the day was 4374.38 points.

The low for the day was 4191.27 points. For S&P CNX Nifty, the opening was 1350.80 points. The low for the day was 1315.15 points whereas the was 1371.80 points.The number of advances stood at 601 and the number of declines was at 742. Around 118 stocks remained unchanged. At the same time, the trading volume was comparatively low on both exchanges. It stood at Rs 3638 crore, and the corresponding figure on the NSE was Rs 4672 crore.

Meanwhile, stocks which gained more than 7.9 per cent were Cadila Health, Federal Bank, Sab Nife, GV Films, Timex Watch, Odyssey Tech, IEC Soft, Tata Metalik, Nucleus Software. Other gainers for the day were Colgate, Kale Consult, Usha Belt, Cinerad Com, Alps Info, Shri MM Soft, Ajanta Pharma, BFL Soft.At the same time, stocks which dipped more than 7.9 per cent were Satyam Comp, Wipro, Silverline, Pentamedia, SSI, Rolta, Aptech, HCL Info, Hero Honda, Padmini Poly, Shyam Tele, Goldstone Tech, Aftek Info, Zenith Info, Vans Info , Kaashyap Rad. Other losers for the day were Zee Tele, Global Tele, Infosys, Sterlite, DSQ Soft, Dig Equipment, NIIT, ACC, SBI, Tata Elxsi, Computech, Crest Com and Mastek.